The presentation discusses the different ways in which archaeologists perceive and reconstruct forms of social interaction in Neolithic Greece. Different categories of archaeological materials, analytical techniques and concepts – in a constant interplay of scales, structures and narratives – have already been employed for this purpose with positive results. In the present contribution it is suggested and argued that social space and its content can act as the interpretative framework in which individual phenomena, related to economic or technological practice, interplay, in a multitude of ways, with social relations between group members at any given moment. This eventually leads to the description of mechanisms of social interaction in the context of different social realities in time and space. It is also suggested here that, by addressing local stories where empirical finds may be made into something more than simple abstract archaeological categories (ceramics, lithics, bones, seeds etc), we may be able to give form to specific social realities and their dialectic phenomena within the prevailing modes of production and the historical content of the period under study.
Communities, Landscapes, and Interaction in Neolithic Greece
International conference 29-30 May 2015
